New Huskers assistant ‘fired up to be here’

Some radio comments from the new co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Glenn Thomas

It seems all the right ingredients to make for a good first week or so on the job.

A new challenge. A setting where he can already tell fans are fueled for football. Some well-known faces on staff with a head coach he considers a mentor. Young QBs eager to learn and lead.

Yes, Glenn Thomas can scribble checkmarks down the paper on why he’s in Nebraska, with a house already under contract and his family moving here in a few weeks.

“It was cool to see all the familiar faces from Garret McGuire, who I coached in college, to E.J. (Barthel), who was in the recruiting department back in the day. Coop [Evan Cooper}. You name it…” said Nebraska’s newest full-time assistant coach on the Huskers Radio Network on Tuesday night. “It just made total sense in that way and obviously I knew the expectation from Coach Rhule as far as culture and standard. What he really preaches here, I understand what that was and I felt like I could add to that coming here to this staff.”

A native of West Texas, with an accent offering the hint, Thomas is hopeful his time as both a college coach and in the NFL – which included work with Matt Ryan when the QB had some of his best days in Atlanta – can serve him well now in his new post.

Husker fans know it’s a big post: QBs coach and co-offensive coordinator after serving last year as an offensive assistant with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

“From a professional perspective I think you have to approach it a little bit different. Obviously (in the NFL) you’re dealing with a grown man that has a mortgage and kids and the whole deal and been in the league eight to 10 years, where coming here you’re maybe dealing with an 18-year-old freshman that’s kind of creating that foundation of football,” Thomas said in the interview with Greg Sharpe.

He’s thinking his time at both the college and pro levels has made him a better coach, having learned how to communicate with a seven-year Pro Bowler and also having coached 18-year-olds thrown in as a starter to his college team right off the bat.

“So I think that’s helped me really be conscience and deliberate in my coaching style and how I deliver information,” Thomas said.

He’ll coach a room with three scholarship QBs in junior Heinrich Haarberg and freshmen Dylan Raiola and Daniel Kaelin, the latter two already on campus as early enrollees.

It is fun getting those young guys fresh to the college game. Of course there are challenges to be met with it too.

“You got to figure out where they are. What is their floor, as you will, and build upon that,” Thomas said. “I think there’s a lot of feedback that needs to happen early. Let them talk. Let them communicate what they know, their experiences, what they like – what they think they like – and then how you can build upon that. So I think that’s probably the first challenge.”